3 - The Barnes Review

PAGE 18 the barnes review MAY/JUNE
Him of Whom they prophesied. And so they
are pitiful because they rejected the blessings
which were sent to them, while others
seized hold of these blessings and drew
them to themselves. Although those Jews
had been called to the adoption of sons, they
fell to kinship with dogs; we who were dogs
received the strength, through God’s grace,
to put aside the irrational nature which was
ours and to rise to the honor of sons. How do
I prove this? Christ said: “It is not fair to
take the children’s bread and to cast it to the
dogs.” Christ was speaking to the Canaanite
woman when He called the Jews children
and the Gentiles dogs.
But see how thereafter the order was
changed about: they became dogs, and we
became the children. Paul said of the Jews:
“Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil
workers, beware of the mutilation. For we
are the circumcision.” Do you see how those
who at first were children became dogs? Do
you wish to find out how we, who at first
were dogs, became children? “But to as
many as received him, he gave the power of
becoming sons of God.”
Nothing is more miserable than those
people who never failed to attack
their own salvation. When there was need to
observe the Law, they trampled it underfoot.
Now that the Law has ceased to bind, they
obstinately strive to observe it. What could
be more pitiable that those who provoke
God not only by transgressing the Law but
also by keeping it? On this account Stephen
said: “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in
heart, you always resist the Holy Spirit,” not
only by transgressing the Law but also by
wishing to observe it at the wrong time.
Stephen was right in calling them stiffnecked.
For they failed to take up the yoke
of Christ, although it was sweet and had
nothing about it which was either burdensome
or oppressive. For he said: “Learn from
me for I am meek and humble of heart,” and
“Take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is
sweet and my burden light.” Nonetheless
they failed to take up the yoke because of
the stiffness of their necks. Not only did
they fail to take it up but they broke it and
destroyed it. For Jeremiah said: “Long ago
you broke your yoke and burst your bonds.”
It was not Paul who said this but the voice
of the prophet speaking loud and clear.
When he spoke of the yoke and the bonds,
he meant the symbols of rule, because the
Jews rejected the rule of Christ when they
said: “We have no king but Caesar.” You
Jews broke the yoke, you burst the bonds,
you cast yourselves out of the kingdom of
heaven, and you made yourselves subject to
the rule of men. Please consider with me
how accurately the prophet hinted that
their hearts were uncontrolled. He did not
say: “You set aside the yoke,” but, “You broke
the yoke,” and this is the crime of untamed
beasts, who are uncontrolled and reject rule.
But what is the source of this hardness?
It come from gluttony and drunkenness.
Who says so? Moses himself. “Israel ate and
was filled, and the darling grew fat and
frisky.” When brute animals feed from a full
manger, they grow plump and become more
obstinate and hard to hold in check; they
endure neither the yoke, the reins nor the
hand of the charioteer. Just so the Jewish
people were driven by their drunkenness
and plumpness to the ultimate evil; they
kicked about, they failed to accept the yoke
of Christ, nor did they pull the plow of his
teaching. Another prophet hinted at this
when he said: “Israel is as obstinate as a
stubborn heifer.” And still another called the
Jews “an untamed calf.”
Although such beasts are unfit for work,
they are fit for killing. And this is what happened
to the Jews: while they were making
themselves unfit for work, they grew fit for
slaughter. This is why Christ said: “But as
for these my enemies, who did not want me
to be king over them, bring them here and
slay them.” 1
You Jews should have fasted then, when
drunkenness was doing those terrible
things to you, when your gluttony was giving
birth to your ungodliness—not now.
Now your fasting is untimely and an abomination.
Who said so? Isaiah himself when
he called out in a loud voice: “I did not
choose this fast, say the Lord.” Why? “You
quarrel and squabble when you fast and
strike those subject to you with your fists.”
But if your fasting was an abomination
when you were striking your fellow slaves,
does it become acceptable now that you
have slain your Master? How could that be
right?
The man who fasts should be properly
restrained, contrite, humbled—not drunk
with anger. But do you strike your fellow
slaves? In Isaiah’s day they quarreled and
squabbled when they fasted; now when
fast[ing], they go in for excesses and the ul -
timate licentiousness, dancing with bare
feet in the marketplace. The pretext is that
they are fasting, but they act like men who
are drunk. Hear how the prophet bid them
to fast: “Sanctify a fast,” he said. He did not
say: “Make a parade of your fasting,” but
“call an assembly; gather together the
ancients.” But these Jews are gathering choruses
of effeminates and a great rubbish
heap of harlots; they drag into the synagogue
the whole theater, actors and all. For
there is no difference between the theater
and the synagogue. I know that some suspect
me of rashness because I said there is
no difference between the theater and the
synagogue; but I suspect them of rashness if
they do not think that this is so. If my declaration
that the two are the same rests on
my own authority, then charge me with
rashness. But if the words I speak are the
words of the prophet, then accept his decision.
Many, I know, respect the Jews and
think that their present way of life is
a venerable one. This is why I hasten to
uproot and tear out this deadly opinion. I
said that the synagogue is no better than a
theater and I bring forward a prophet as my
witness. Surely the Jews are not more
deserving of belief than their prophets. “You
had a harlot’s brow; you became shameless
before all.” Where a harlot has set herself
up, that place is a brothel. But the synagogue
is not only a brothel and a theater; it
also is a den of robbers and a lodging for
wild beasts. Jeremiah said: “Your house has
become for me the den of a hyena.” He does
not simply say “of wild beast,” but “of a filthy
wild beast,” and again: “I have abandoned
my house, I have cast off my inheritance.”
But when God forsakes a people, what hope
of salvation is left? When God forsakes a
place, that place becomes the dwelling of
demons.
But at any rate the Jews say that they,
too, adore God. God forbid that I say that.
No Jew adores God. Who says so? The Son of
God says so. For he said: “If you were to
know my Father, you would also know me.
But you neither know me nor do you know
my Father.” Could I produce a witness more
trustworthy than the Son of God?
If, then, the Jews fail to know the Father,
if they crucified the Son, if they thrust off
the help of the Spirit, who should not make
bold to declare plainly that the synagogue is
a dwelling of demons? God is not worshiped
there. Heaven forbid. From now on it
remains a place of idolatry. But still some
people pay it honor as a holy place.
If you see one of your brothers falling
into ... transgressions, you consider that it
is someone else’s misfortune, not your own;
you think you have defended yourselves
against your accusers when you say: “What
concern of mine is it? What do I have in common
with that man”? 2 When you say that,
your words manifest the utmost hatred for
mankind and a cruelty which benefits the
devil. What are you saying? You are a man
and share the same nature. Why speak of a
common nature when you have but a single
head, Christ? Do you dare to say you have
nothing in common with your own mem-